From Burkhard: 28mm WWII British Tankers and Achilles Tank Destroyer (44 points)

From Burkhard:

First of all let me start with what I did not enter for this round. I had initially planned to enter a bunch of Sherman tanks for the vehicle theme round. When I started on these I decided that these would depict two troops from the Irish Guards in Market Garden livery. Unfortunately I had to find that while the inventory in my head said that I had the appropriate decals, I had not. Well one trip to Doms Decals and most of my problems had been solved except for the fact that the Guards painted the centre of their tactical markings (that is those diamonds, triangles, circles, and squares) in black and that no one did these in 1:48th or 1:56th scale. So I began looking for someone who would do me some custom decals, which I eventually did. They were shipped last week and while I was wainting for them, I started work on some Bauhaus Hussars for Warzone Resurrection. When the decals arrived on Monday these were done except for the weapons, gloves and basing. Seeing that time was a premium, I decided to do the tanks and if there was to be time finish them, too. Which I think proved to be a bad call. Tonight with just some 7 hours to on the Challenge (which is around midnight local) and after a day of painting, I find my eyes were going sore and I have to call it a day. Now what is missing? Well the tracks and dust on two troops of Shermans and as a result the Hussars, too. I guess I would have needed 3 more hours to finish the tanks and another two for the minis, but that did not happen. So here is the photo of shame:

What did I finish? Well the tankers for the Shermans (and some other tanks and armored cars) were painted in February so here they are (all Warlord Games):

They are still glossy since they were going to be matt varnished after mounting them into the tanks.

What else? Well before my eyes gave out, I at least managed to finish the Achilles Tank Destroyer (incidentally the only tank model I do not have crew figures for yet). It is a Tamiya 1:48th scale kit, that has been heavily converted using aftermarket packages. One to convert the gun breach assembly and the turret counterweights from the standard 3” M10 to the 17pdr.. another one to give me a brass and aluminum barrel for more detail and robustness and then there is the stowage from a third aftermarket kit. 

For those interested… I will finish the Shermans and Hussars over the next couple days. So if you want to see them they will be up on my blog www.dhcwargamesblog.wordpress.com over the next couple of days. And you can also see the further progress of my WWII British in coming weeks. Really hope Curt forgives me this shameless plug!

But alas, now it is time for famous last words. I really enjoyed this, my second Analogue Hobbies Challenge. As before the comrade and quality of entries has been great! While I found the theme rounds took a lot of my time and often put my other painting into disarray until I learned (after four rounds) to just work through all of them and enter them well in advance I loved them, especially since they allowed me to tackle some topics like ACW that I had not touched in ages. Given that I had even less time to paint than last year, I really like the fact that I actually got more points under my belt than last year (and that is without the 195 points group of shame I almost finished) and that I managed to succeed in one of my side challenges (congratulations to Tamsin for pulverizing us on the other one!!! ;-)). As always this has proven a great boost to my winter painting!

But I would like to applaud my fellow Challengers. The quality and sheer amount of minis painted has been impressive. But even more impressive has been the comradie. Thank you all for that and the nice comments you have left me! Really looking forward to the next installment!

But my special thanks goes out to Curt. I am always amazed at what he does here. For three long months he puts up with 60 loonies bombarding him with photos and text of painted minis to allow them to slave through their lead mountains. It takes a lot to keep sane through that! I think we should all appreciate this and give him a huge thanks.  Thanks for having me along!!!

Thank you for the kind words Burkhard - I wouldn't do this if it wasn't a pleasure. 

I think you're in good company as many of us felt the crunch going into these last few weeks. Nonetheless I think you've done marvelous work here. That Achilles TD is absolutely gorgeous. For sure the extra bits are great but it's your paintwork that really makes it sing. Fantastic.

This Tank Destroyer and the dozen tank commanders will give Burkhard 44 points. Well done!